Saturday, July 17, 2010

Yesterday I went to the retirement gathering for Michael Dunne, UCC Buildings and Estates. Michael is one of those people you meet who make life worth living. Next time you're frustrated, bored or infuriated by a colleague or trapped by office politics, cheer yourself up by thinking about who the Michael Dunnes in your work-life are...

Michael (seen here for the first time in 30 years without a tie...) is a pure gentleman, who negotiated his way with intelligence and diplomacy through that most difficult of working environments, the university, for nearly forty years... and everyone trusted him to have the best interests of all, and of College, at heart. You just knew he wasn't doing anything for personal kudos or advancement, and that he saw working life as a process for all to enjoy, not tolerate.

He also had a great feeling for the stewardship role of estate management, which came out in his brief talk on the history of the Lee Maltings buildings. He was very helpful to me during my time at NAIRTL in my efforts to prevent the Distillery House from quietly slipping into the Lee...

I recorded his talk and have divided it up into the Lee Maltings, his lifelong hobby, running and his many and varied thanks to colleagues. As always with Michael, I also learned something new - before his UCC career he worked for my Mahony relatives at Mahony's Blarney Wool and on Noel Mahony's farm in Watergrasshill. I hope he has a long and healthy retirement and enjoys using the beautiful 18th century Irish Georgian silver sauce boat which he chose as his retirement gift.